The joint venture partners behind the In Salah gas development in Algeria has awarded the UK’s Petrofac a $1.2bn lump-sum engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract.

The fields being developed are Garet el-Befinat, Hassi Moumene, In Salah and Gour Mohmoud. The joint venture partners behind the scheme are Algeria’s state-owned energy company Sonatrach, the UK’s BP and Norway’s Statoil.

“The southern fields is our sixth EPC project in Algeria and further demonstrates our commitment to supporting the country’s developments in the energy sector,” Maroun Semaan, Petrofac’s group chief operating officer said in a statement.

The scope of works for the contract includes a new central production and gas gathering facility, two dehydration trains, with a production capacity of about 16.8 million cubic metres of gas a day, around 300 kilometres of gas collection pipelines, as well as the construction of permanent camps.

The work will last 50 months and be completed in phases.

Modification work will also be conducted on existing facilities at Reg, with an additional dehydration train and upgraded compression facilities.